Iridium-6 & GRACE-FO

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017. GRACE-FO will carry on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

Five Iridium Next satellites will help upgrade the Iridium Constellation. The launch is one of eight that Iridium has purchased from SpaceX. In total, 75 satellites will be launched.